I Cooked 100 Years of School Lunch

Grilled Cheese with a slice of bread on the side is crazy😂

I would've loved 1910...bringing my own five course lunch to school

Honestly, I love dried beef. And when you make the gravy right, I think its awesome. My dad said in Vietnam they called it Sh** on a shingle. And I am from the 80s but never had any kind of soda in school. Always milk.

Every time I see a video similar to this, it makes me realize how healthy my school was and this is coming from a 90s kid. We never had McDonalds and desserts were maybe twice a month. There was always fruits and veggies and we were expected to eat them, unless there were allergies. Also HIgh School in the 2000's were not as boring at least.

Growing up in the 2000's I don't think any of my meals looked like that. I feel like mine were more remenecent of what they showed for like the 60's and 80's. The things I remember most were the square pizza slices, the pb and j crustables, there was always milk that I'd blow into with a straw to get fun bubbles, and the chicken nuggets. Chicken nugget day was undoubtedly the best day for school lunches.

In the 70s and 80s, none of the public schools served coca-cola or any other carbonated drinks. You had a choice between white or chocolate milk. They also included apple or orange juice during breakfast. Also, cheese pizza with fries or tater-tots were a daily option, the other main dishes were offered on specific days.

7:04 My school actually served little circular pan pizzas sometimes, and also served pepperoni, which they could get away with because they would put a pork warning above it on a sign.

I am glad than i am an indian and my government always know the importance of nutritional food for students. Eventhough the country was developing and facing severe economic crisis our government didnt compromised on kids

I like how the 1910 lunch is infinitely healthier than the school lunches of today.

Schools eliminate processed food (proceeds to give processed baloney and cheese)

Canadian from the prairies here. Back in the 60's when I was in grade school, there was zero school cafeteria food, and you were only allowed to bring your lunch if you lived over a mile away from the school. Otherwise, you were expected to go home for lunch. In really cold snaps, you could bring a lunch from home, but you ate at your desk in the classroom, since the lunchroom really could only accommodate the kids who brought lunch on a regular basis. In high school in the 70s, I got lucky. Our high school was a combination school, where you could take regular classes or learn a trade - or both if you wanted to put the time in. This meant that we had a group of students taking "food preparation and food sciences", so the students enrolled in that course (which was a half day every day for three years) would make and serve the lunches for the cafeteria - so we had fresh food prepared and served daily - homemade soups, salads, sandwiches; plus hot meals that included pasta, casseroles, fish, chicken, beef, pork - and yes, pizza day was still a special day for us. We could get coffee, tea, milk or juice in the cafeteria, but there were vending machines scattered around the school if you wanted a soda. I honestly have no idea what the lunches cost - it was a long time ago - but I know it was relatively inexpensive. Sadly, Canada still does not have a national school lunch program.

That creamed chipped beef looks delicious. Had that a lot growing up in the 60's. I didn't realize it at the time but that's poor people food.

My school meals in the 1960s were superb. A thick stew followed by chocolate sponge in a white sauce were just one of my favourites.

My Mom and grandmother cooked in the schools for years 1950s and 1960s and they always got compliments about how good their food was.

I was in high school late 90’s into the early 2000”s. My school was trade oriented and we actually had our commercial cooking and baking classes make the lunches. It was always something different, and they even did catering orders in the afternoon classes.

It’s actually quite insane to see how different American school lunches are from what I’m used to here in Portugal! Here it’s almost unthinkable to serve students hamburgers and French fries 😅 (although I’m sure sometimes the students would prefer it). What I noticed is that in America lunch is seen as a lighter meal (correct me if I’m wrong), dinner being maybe the main meal of the day. Here in Portugal lunch is as important as dinner in terms of servings, so usually school lunches always include a full course meal with soup, rice/ potatoes or pasta with some kind of fish or meat, salad and desert (which is usually some type of gelatin, puddin and always with the option of fruit). You can also have bread but it’s usually optional and used to eat with the soup.

I went to school throughout the 2010s and tbh, what you got is michelin star worthy compared to what we got. Everything had been frozen, burgers warmed with water (not sous vide, just straight in the water) with fake grill marks, chicken patties with cartilage in it and some red spots, burnt pizza with soggy crust and probably more oregano than sauce, soggy fried chicken wing with a flat side, half decent nuggets and oddly good mac and cheese (very rare tho). The worst of it was that my school constantly tried to convince us the food was good. They had "ads" for their food depicting people being so lucky to have "such good food". No one was buying it. I'm so glad to be out of high school.

In Singapore throughout my school years from the 2000s to 2010s, our cafeteria just has a bunch of mini stalls with different cuisines. We had the choice of chinese, indian, malay, western food. A drink stall, pasty stall, noodle stall. The prices usually ranges from $1.50 to $4 for a meal.

My elementary school didn't have a cafeteria (where I live; only middle schools & high schools have school cafeterias); so most elementary school students either went home for lunch or brought their lunches to school.

In the late 80s, we had chili every Friday. There were 2 options for sides. An apple and a PBJ sandwich. I still eat PBJ sandwich with Chili to this day.